One quick and dirty method I like for a first cut at looking at changes in APIs is to run my simple Groovy script diffVersionsJavadocs.groovy against two versions of Javadoc. The latest version of this simple script is shown next.

In this case, I was not able to find the JavaFX 2.1 API documentation publicly available online, so I downloaded the Windows Developer Preview and used the local JavaFX 2.1 API documentation that is included in the download to compare with the publicly available JavaFX 2.0 API documentation. I ran the script as shown in the next screen snapshot.

For convenience and "searchability" purposes, I have included the script's output as text next. The top section shows what I was mostly interested (new constructs in JavaFX 2.1), but the lower section is interesting because there are a surprising number of constructs that were in JavaFX 2.0 Javadoc that are no longer (at least as of now) in teh JavaFX 2.1 Javadoc.

Constructs in JavaFX 2.1 But Not in JavaFX 2.0

javafx/beans/WeakListener.html

javafx/collections/ObservableSet.html

javafx/collections/SetChangeListener.Change.html

javafx/collections/SetChangeListener.html

javafx/collections/WeakListChangeListener.html

javafx/collections/WeakMapChangeListener.html

javafx/collections/WeakSetChangeListener.html

javafx/concurrent/WorkerStateEvent.html

javafx/scene/ParentDesignInfo.html

javafx/scene/chart/StackedAreaChart.html

javafx/scene/chart/StackedAreaChartBuilder.html

javafx/scene/chart/StackedBarChart.html

javafx/scene/chart/StackedBarChartBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/ComboBox.html

javafx/scene/control/ComboBoxBase.html

javafx/scene/control/ControlDesignInfo.html

javafx/scene/control/SplitPaneDesignInfo.html

javafx/scene/input/ContextMenuEvent.html

javafx/scene/input/MouseDragEvent.html

javafx/scene/layout/GridPaneDesignInfo.html

javafx/scene/layout/PaneDesignInfo.html

javafx/stage/DirectoryChooser.html

javafx/stage/DirectoryChooserBuilder.html

Constructs in JavaFX 2.0 But Not in JavaFX 2.1

javafx/concurrent/ServiceBuilder.html

javafx/event/EventBuilder.html

javafx/event/EventTypeBuilder.html

javafx/scene/chart/AxisBuilder.html

javafx/scene/chart/CategoryAxisBuilder.html

javafx/scene/chart/NumberAxisBuilder.html

javafx/scene/chart/ValueAxisBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/AccordionBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/ButtonBaseBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/ButtonBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/CellBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/CheckBoxBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/CheckMenuItemBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/ChoiceBoxBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/ContextMenuBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/ControlBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/CustomMenuItemBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/HyperlinkBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/IndexRangeBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/IndexedCellBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/LabelBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/LabeledBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/ListCellBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/ListViewBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/MenuBarBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/MenuBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/MenuButtonBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/MenuItemBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/MultipleSelectionModelBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/PasswordFieldBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/PopupControlBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/ProgressBarBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/ProgressIndicatorBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/RadioButtonBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/RadioMenuItemBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/ScrollBarBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/ScrollPaneBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/SeparatorBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/SeparatorMenuItemBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/SliderBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/SplitMenuButtonBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/SplitPaneBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/TabBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/TabPaneBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/TableCellBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/TableColumnBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/TablePositionBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/TableRowBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/TableViewBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/TextAreaBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/TextFieldBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/TextInputControlBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/TitledPaneBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/ToggleButtonBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/ToggleGroupBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/ToolBarBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/TooltipBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/TreeCellBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/TreeItemBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/TreeViewBuilder.html

javafx/scene/control/cell/PropertyValueFactoryBuilder.html

javafx/util/PairBuilder.html

We can see from the output above that there is, as of now, a new DirectoryChooser, the already-mentioned new ComboBox control, two new chart types (StackedBarChart and StackedAreaChart), and several new collections listeners. The long list of constructs that are no longer part of JavaFX (as of now for JavaFX 2.1) are all, probably not coincidentally, "builders." UPDATE: Jonathan has pointed out the "builders" are actually in JavaFX 2.1 and were only omitted at one time from the JavaFX 2.1 Javadoc documentation. Based on this, I have striked-out that portion of the output above.

The Jonathan Giles post warns that this early access beta release of JavaFX 2.1 should not be used for production systems, but it is interesting to get a glimpse of what is to come. Perhaps as important as the new features and classes themselves is the fact that updates are occurring.